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Prague’s first “night mayor” Jan Štern is tasked with finding ways to alleviate problems caused by noise and rowdy behaviour. But what are the most effective means of keeping the city centre liveable for residents? And what needs to happen for Prague to shake off its international reputation as stag weekend central? I discussed those questions and more with Štern (35), beginning with which parts of the city have the worst problems with noise in the nocturnal hours.

Zdeněk Hřib of the Pirate Party has been the mayor of Prague for only 10 months but has already garnered the attention of international media, particularly over his attempts to remove an article recognising the One China policy from the city’s partnership agreement with Beijing. I met with Mr. Hřib at City Hall to discuss his view of the situation, as well as his fondness for Taiwan. The mayor is actually a physician by training and I began by asking him for a diagnosis of tourism in Prague and the city’s plans in this area.

Jan Špidlen is the fourth generation of his family to work as a master violin maker. What are some of the secrets to crafting top class violins? And how has the industry changed in the last few decades? I discussed those questions with Špidlen surrounded by an array of traditional tools at his Prague centre workshop. But I began by asking him about the first violin he ever produced?

Just over 100 years ago, the American steel town of Pittsburgh was host to a memorandum of understanding between the nation’s Czech and Slovak immigrant communities to create an independent republic following the demise of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Today, the city is home to one of America’s largest Slovak communities, a modest Czech one, and a school that unites expatriates of both. Alice Ždrale, head of the Czech and Slovak School of Pittsburgh, on a working trip back to her native Prague, shares the story of the informal school, one of the

A major celebration of the 175th anniversary of the YMCA gets underway in London next Sunday and among those in attendance will be a delegation from the Czech Republic. How long has the YMCA been active in this part of the world? And do members need to be Christian? Those are just a couple of the questions I put to two young members, Vladi Vidláková and Nina Hustedová, shortly before they left for the UK. But I first asked Vidláková how she had first got involved with the YMCA.

Animator Gene Deitch settled in Prague almost 60 years ago and directed Tom and Jerry and Popeye cartoons behind the Iron Curtain for the US market. The small number of other Americans who moved here in the communist period were one subject we discussed in the second half of an extensive interview. But I began by asking Deitch about the time the great folk singer and social activist Pete Seeger, a good friend of his, visited Czechoslovakia in 1964.

Gene Deitch, who turns 95 next month, is by some distance the US citizen longest resident in Prague. Deitch had run a successful animation studio in New York prior to the fateful meeting in 1959 with his future wife Zdenka that led him to settle in Prague soon after. From behind the Iron Curtain, he produced an Oscar-winning animated short, as well as directing Tom and Jerry and Popeye cartoons for the American market.

One of the most accomplished Czech Jazz guitarists, Rudy Linka, first gained fame abroad after moving to Sweden in 1980 and later learning from jazz titans such as John Scofield and John Abercrombie in the USA. Today he lives mainly in New York, but has also become a popular music personality in his native Czech Republic, founding one of Europe’s biggest summer jazz festivals and hosting his own shows on Czech Television and Radio. We caught up with him in Prague, while he was preparing this year’s Bohemia Jazz Festival.

Journalist Julie Urbišová has just published a book entitled Doma v NOLA, or At Home in NOLA, with NOLA meaning New Orleans, Louisiana. Having first visited the city on a student stay in 2007, Urbišová has now been living for several years in New Orleans, from where she reports for Czech Radio, Czech Television and other outlets. Our conversation took in NOLA’s Czech connections, its crime rate and Hurricane Katrina. But it began with the organisation of its famous Mardi Gras parades.

Bohdan Pomahač led the team that carried out the first ever full transplant of a human face in the United States. The Boston-based plastic surgeon recently received the Gratias Agit award from the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ for promoting the good name of the Czech Republic abroad. After the ceremony, I spoke to the famous physician about various aspects of facial transplantation – and much more.